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student caused mass disruption and panic around the UK when he sent improvised explosives through the post as part of an elaborate fraud plot.
Ovidijus Margelis, 26, rigged packages with match heads, combustible paper, and timer devices in order for address labels to be “obliterated” while they were in transit.
He sold products such as Apple watches online, but sent empty parcels to the customer expecting to be able to claim refunds from Amazon or PayPal when the damaged package could not be delivered.
However Margelis’ plans unraveled when one device failed to ignite and a parcel reached a family home in Cricklewood, sparking an evacuation of the surrounding streets due to fears it was a fully-fledged bomb, Kingston crown court heard.
One of Margelis’ packages were tracked to an Amazon depot in Dunfermline, there was a major alert in Manchester, and a part of Stockport along the A6 had to be closed off as police hunted for the packages.
On Monday Margelis, who had been in the third year of a business management course at Anglia Ruskin University, pleaded guilty to making an explosive substance – namely an improvised pyrotechnic device – fraud, and possession of articles for use in fraud.
He is due to be sentenced in April and has been warned of a “strong expectation” of receiving a prison sentence.
“He set up devices to activate within the postal system”, said Judge Martyn Barklem, describing Margelis fraud plot carried out between July and September last year.
“Upon activation, a charge was ignited in the parcel controlled by a timer relay, designed to burn through and obliterate address labels on the parcels to frustrate delivery.
“The object was to commit fraud.”
Prosecutor Edward Franklin said the streets around a family’s home in Cricklewood were evacuated and the bomb disposal squad were dispatched after the address label on one of Margelis’ parcels failed to burn.
“For three days they thought they had been sent a bomb”, he said of the terrified family.
Mr Franklin told the court of “serious disruption to the Royal Mail”, an evacuation of the major Amazon depot in Dunfermline in September, as well as disruption on the train network during the hunt for the packages.
“If the parcels had combusted and caught fire in the right circumstances, the consequences would have been very significant indeed”, he added.
Lithuania-born Margelis, who has no previous convictions, admitted sending seven parcels when he was quizzed by police.
He pleaded guilty today, following a ruling by the judge that he could properly be prosecuted under an explosive charge.
Margelis, of Cambridge, has been held in custody since his arrest, and is due to be sentenced on April 23.
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